The state chronicle., 1887-06-23
THE HISTORY AND NEEDS
OF PUBLIC EDUCATION IN THE
STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA.
At our Request. Sup't OF schools, Maj.
$. VI. Finger, Furnishes the Following
History Of Public Education.


following section
That school or schools shall be estab-
| lished by the Legislature for the conve-
nient instruction of youth, with such sal
aries to the masters, paid by the pnblc,
as may enable them to instruct at low
prices; and all useful learning shall be
duly encouraged and promoted in one or
| more universities.
| In obedience to this constitutional pro-
/ vision the University of North Carolina
| was established by act of Assembly in the
year 1888. This institution was opened
tor Students in February, 1888 Except
! during q few years just after the close OF
! the late war, 1t has been since 1495 III sue
cessful operations; and from it have gone
forth, from time to time, men who have
adorned almost every station within the
gift of the American people. Its influence
has gone down among the people, and 1t
mas been a power in their education.
1t now has an endowment by the State,
and all the appointments of university
in fact, in which the youth of the State
and of other States may be Instructed Ill
all the branches of useful learning, and it
| is Il worthy head to the common schools of
the State.
In the year 1925, the General Assembly
set apart for co.nnlon schools fund con
sistng of the dividends arising from the
stocks then held or afterwards acquired by
the State, in the banks of Newbern and
Cape Fear, the dividends arising from the
stocks owned by the State in the Cape Fear
Navigation Company. the Roanoke Navl-
CATION Company, and the Cluhfoot and
Harlowe's Creek Canal Company, the tax
imposed by law on license to retailer, of
sprituous liquors and auctioneeIs, the un
expended balance of the agricultural fund,
all moneys paid to the State for entries of
Il I,n
propriated swamp lauds of the State, to-
gether with such sums of money as the
Legislature may hereafter find it conve-
nient to appropriate from time to time"
From those sources 1t might seem that Il
large fund would soon have been accumu-
lated, but the generosity of the State as
shown by Act of Assembly, at Fayetteville
; ! 1889, cut off what, under the above recited
provision would soon have yielded a mag
nficent school fund. ! refer to the Act
/ ceding to the United States all her terrific
ry now included in the great State of Ten
nessee ] recite the preamble giving the
reasons for the cession of this magnificent
} domain, and as indicative OF the character
Of our people at that early date:
"WHEREAs. The United States in Con-
gress assembled have repeatedly and earn
estly recomm ended to the respective States,
owning or claiming western territory to
make CcSSIOll Oh part OI lile same as Il luT-
: ther means as well of fastening the eX-
tluguishmeut of the cvu;s, as Of establish
ing tha harmony of the United States; and
} the inhabitants of the said western terri
Z tory being also desirous that such cession
should be made in order to obtain more
[ ample protection than they have hereto
fore received. Now, this State being evel
desirous of doing ample justice to the pub
: lie creditors, as well as establishing the
Il.
ing with the reasonable desires of her cit
ZenS.
e Be it enacted, &c'' The Act goes on te
: recite the manner OF making the deed, auC
J va ious conditions of the grant anon.
n WHICH is this
t provided, always, that no regulation:
e made or to be made by Congress, shal
{ tend to emancipate slaves
l. The deed Was made February, 1870, fol
Il the reason stated IN the preamble ab0v,
/ recited, and the grant was accepted BY
;, Congress on the I'd day of April of tha
5 year. Thus it was that North Caroin;
/; parted with this valuable domain, hecaus,
Il Congress requested it ia be done as a meaI
Is OF paying the public debt, which had beel
3 incurred by the thirteen original States il
their common struggle for independence
Thus il WAS that North Carolina surrend
e cred what would have yielded her a mag
iiIlCtlL SCiIOOI liutI. ulltlcI SUCH ItSlSld
y ton as that of 1925, above Tecited. Thi
% action on the part of North Carolina wa
ID i'll marked contrast with the action Con
4. Iectlcut II: reference To her public lands
II Connecticut, instead of contributing he
&c public lands to the payment of the com
mon debt Of the country, held her ''wester1
reserve for her own uses and from it la
'e the foundation Of her school fund.
$ From the funds appropriated by the Ac
" II Il
De by Congress in 1886, North Carolina had
IT up to 1910, accumulated a school fund 0
ne about two millions dollars, one millo
$ four hundred thousand Of which cam
re from the congressional distribution. Tn
e. fund yielded about one hundred and twer
or ty thousand dollars per anuum-a sma
sum with which to begin system of ger
eral education for a State comprising %
Is $50 square miles of sparsely populate
e. territory.
lie The public schools were, however, prt
RS vided for in Il -, and We're continued III
III til the close of the late war, the totf
he amount expended annually being from tw
ct TO three hundred thousand dollars, in su,
IL. port of from two thousand to three thOt
IL. sand public schools
he Notwithstanding this was sma
=" amount of money to be spread over sue
er a large territory, yet great good was az
lie compllShed, not alone IN the education
the masses of the people in the rudimen
ary branches of English, but also in infu
ci- ing among the people the spirit pf educ;
"a ton.
Nv But the war of 1851 came, and the L,
ST suits were the loss of almost the whole
NJ the school fund, and the destruction of a
ct most every species of property eXcel
1t the lands. Not only so, but its lurtht
re results We're the freedom and citizenshi
I'd of the negroes, who added largely to tt
tel school population of the State and il
creased the difficulty of the public scho
problem. The whites numbered abol
five-eighths and the negroes about thre
eighths of the whole population.
OF The problem hen was, how the fiv
eghths, lmpoviohed as they We're, ownil
all the lands, but essentially nothing bl
: the lands, could educate themselves al
also the three e-eighths of paupers recent
made citizens. | do not think that al
ye civilized people ever had thrust upon tie
~ a more difficult problem than the Sout
had, for it applied to the whole South,
the formation of safe political society o.
of such material. OF course general ed
cation was seen to be a necessity. On
people, recognizing the necessity, wi
that wonderful adaptablity which chara
toriZeS them did not fold their hands